Kids (Jan. 31)

I once heard a comedian say that he thought the lifecycle was backwards. See kids do not appreciate the freedom and lack of responsibility that they have but if they were to experience the rest of life first then that carefree time in life would be so much more appreciated. Why is it that one feels the need to be something more than this simplistic attitude towards life? It seems that as one grows older they become more concerned with the needs of food and the freedom to have fun in whatever way they desire. Perhaps this makes sense or perhaps kids have it figured out. Sure one does need food to live. But what if for a change one took the time to really appreciate the simple things in life like rolling down a grassy hill or playing on the playground. Perhaps the toy isn't the most important part of the gift but the box that it came in.

Change (Jan. 30)

There are certain things in life that make you change. Perhaps you change who you are, where you live, how you make a living, the people you keep close to you or who knows what one of many other things it is. Even in the midst of one social event it is possible that you will find yourself caught be some circumstance that makes you change the entire way you think or are approaching a given situation. How much should one allow themselves to be changes by what is going on around them and how much whould you let who you are affect the situation. It is a careful balance that few people have mastered and few people even care to try and master. Yet there is still something deep down that is still you, becuase you can really naver change who you are.

Breathing (Jan. 29)

It is a very unique feature of living things. They breath in a particular way suited to the habitat in which they live. Humans, for instance, living above the ground breath the air that surrounds this planet. Unless you work in the medical field, and specifically in respiratory services, you probably do not think about breathing all that much. It just kind of happens and the body naturally adjusts itself to the circumstances to get enough air so as to allow the body to function properly. Now you may notice when your breathing changes but do you really think about actually breathing? You can think about not breathing for a period of time before your body tells you hey stupid take a breath. It is honestly amazing that something that happens so frequently throughout the day is something that we literally do not have to think about. Surely we would miss noticing other things if we had to think about breathing but we should ask ourselves what we are missing because we are thinking about other things.

Analysis (Jan. 28)

In an economic climate like the one that exists today, businesses and people in general seek some sort of hope in the analysis of what is to come. But analysis in and of itself is not a tool of certainty. Analysis is simply looking at the past and the hopes of being able to predict to the future. The hope is that with a complete set of data that this process of stretching the mind to encompass a set of numbers will come to some sort of conclusion. The reality is that a complete set of data is hard to come by. There will always be stray data that does not fit the set and there will be more than one way that a conclusion can be made. And yet numbers of people sit in an office somewhere and continue to crunch the data. There are situations everyday that almost force every member of society to do just the same on a personal level. There are those who spend way too much time going through this process which keeps them from acting. Sometimes it is not about the data and not about trying to predict what will happen as much as it is taking action.

Politicians (Jan. 27)

Whoever was the first person to say that politicians cannot be trusted was wise beyond his years. In todays world where life is tough and the balance of many lives hang in the balance politicians seem to come up with speaches that ignite hope with no real investment in the reality of the plans that they present. They often talk about unity right before or after saying something that has just split the room in half. They talk about eliminating their own personal interests and seeking the greater good, but only as long as their ideas are the ones being passed into law. It matters not what you believe as a politician and more about what the people who elected you desire. Both sides of the aisle are just as guilty and unfortunately it has led to a political atmosphere of us against them despite our desire to work together. I think we have forgotten the words once spoken by a politician, which if we applied and worked out in the best possible scenario for all would honestly change things. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Network (Jan. 26)

So it seems the world has come to a place where it is all about who you know. The sad thing is that online communities are popping up that attempt to simulate the act of connecting socially with people but there are and will continue to be some major flaws with networking online. The first problem is that it requires no social skills to actually network online. Secondly, if you do attempt to connect online there is a serious draw back in the reality that the communication is ultimately flawed in the sense that it lacks reality. The one benefit that is there is the ability to connect with millions of people and people that you would not be able to connect with any other way. Take a second to ask yourself if connecting with someone in an enviornment that will always hold a high degree of fakeness is worth connecting with that person at all.

Winning (Jan. 25)

There are many different strategies that a coach will employ with his team, no matter the sport or game, even if that coach is yourself. See there are times when you can take a risk and there are times when you have to lay low. Those who find themselves winning are the ones who employ the right strategy at the right time. There are some strategies that never allow one to win. If you play not to loose the game, inevitably the best you will ever be able to do is finish in a tie and ties are almost worse than a loss. At the very least any strategy employed must be one where the intent is to win the game. Fans loose interest, other players get frustrated and the world will inevitably come to an end, figuratively of course, when there are players out there who play the game not to loose. The question then remains what strategy do you employ?

Faith (Jan. 24)

I often find people in this world who have no idea what faith really is. Everyday they act with faith, apparently without knowing it, and then go on to have cynical attitudes to anyone who claims to have faith. It is true that the general context of faith revolves around religion but faith is something way more general than that. Faith is directly related to belief and belief is the readiness to act as if something were true. Faith is the expectation of particular results in relation to those actions. So for instance I believe that a chair is built to allow people to sit on it and it will support their weight. Faith is actually sitting in the chair with the expectation holding true that it does indeed support your weight. See, it is really something that everyone does just about everyday and often without thinking about it. When was the last time you spent a good period of time thinking about sitting in a chair and then inspecting a chair before actually sitting in it?

Community (Jan. 23)

Stay in one place long enough and keep from sticking your head in the ground and inevitably you will develop a community. In most cases you will have your hat in many different communities around what you like to do, with work and with play. But why is this community something to be proud of? Why do these seemingly random people mean so much to you? It starts with a shared experience and you mix it with time and you end up with memories. This receipe is what produces community. It is like baking your favorite cookies. You sample some of the dough along the way and the smell is just amazing and then as soon as they come out of the oven you dare to burn yourself just to get a taste of the amazingness that it is. And you wonder why you become so attached to your community?

Intentions (Jan. 22)

When thing get tough in life it seems like there are numerous people who come out of the wood work with good intentions. Take for example that recently the small half island nation of Haiti has been hit be a bunch of eathquakes. It is only now after the quakes that people are trying to find a way to help out by donating money and other items to the relief effort. Two questions really come out of this. First, why is it that so few people were willing to help before the troubles? Second, do people outside of the situation really know what is needed? It seems that most problems could be solved before disaster strikes if one simply takes the time to observe circumstances. For instance, in the wealthy country of the USA building inspections and bridge inspections and other things are done prior to disasters happening which significantly minimizes the number of deaths that occur in a disaster, something that is not true in Haiti, part of the reason that this event was so disasterous. I cannot argue against the intentions of people at any point in the the process but often feel that good intentions could be so much more useful if they were directed better. It is simply taking a second to think before just blurting out anything.

Food (Jan. 21)

Three meals a day, for the most part, since the day you are born. It is almost mind numbing to think about all the food that is needed to keep the body functioning properly. Not only that but from the very begining there is some kind of inate response from the body to say hey I need food. That is one of the most common reasons a newborn baby cries after all. So what about the food needed to help those other parts of who you are function properly? You have to admit that if you do not feed your thinking muscle it will become weak. If you do not feed any muscle it will atrophy. The wonder comes from the idea that it seems that these other areas do not have that same inate desire and reaction to require food or at the very least a reaction that is much easier to overcome. But what if we thought of these things in the same light we think of food? Would that craving we have for a nice, juicey, well seasoned steak become a desire to think deeper?

Predictability (Jan. 20)

Humans are creatures of habit to a large extent. This phenomenon leads to the reality that life is predictable to a certain extent. Certain things seem like they will always happen or that you will respond in a particular way based on the circumstances of a given situation. The reality is that there is a particular part of your brain that specifically deals with memory in such a way that you really do not even have to think about it. For example, after living in a given residence for even a short period of time, one would be able to literally walk through the residence completely blind and know exactly where they were at. Sure you might have to feel around for the walls but you would still know where you are. This predictability for the positive is comfort, but what about the circumstances you find yourself in where predictability is for the negative? You may not know what is going to happen and they may cause stress, but it is these times in life that make the entirety fun.

Debate (Jan. 19)

There are certain issues in life that are worth debating and several that are not. Telling the difference is not all that easy anymore as it seems like people enjoy debating for the mere sake of debating. There are also certain instances where topics are worth debating and times when certain issues are not worth debating. The interesting thing behind it all is that a good healthy debate is something that is very intellectually stimulating and healthy for the mind. In synthesizing all of these thoughts, one has to wonder if the reality of the matter then is simply that people, politicians and lawyers in particular, have forgotten what healthy debate actually is. Perhaps it is that they were never honestly educated in healthy debate and are more caught up in the rules of how they must discuss topics with the emphasis on them winning versus coming to a point where they could say that the debate was good and healthy. Is the point of debate to win or to allow your mind to practice thinking?

Climbing (Jan. 18)

It seems that most of life is spent trying to achive something. That something may be different for every person but there is a simple truth that remains the same for everyone. The climb to achieve what you are striving for will almost certainly never be enough. Often we hear stories of people who accomplish something and then what? Do they just stop trying to accomplish something? Indeed they do not. Now perhaps someone may have made it big in business and they set out to retire and do something. Perhaps that something is merely enjoying life but it is still a climb to achive just that. Perhaps we focus too much on the goal or even the next goal and forget to enjoy the climb itself. Perhaps it isn't so much about the goal as much as it is about the path to it.

Image (Jan. 17)

It is interesting the the words image and imagination, being what they are, come from the same root word. Undoubtably when you meet someone for the first time you get a particular image of who they are and when you know that you are meeting someone for the first time you attempt to put out a particular image of who you are. Could it be that this image is nothing more than imagination of the desire we have of either who we want someone to be or who we want others to think that we are? How difficult is it to truly know who you are as an individual? As you are growing up in life, and this is a lifelong process, how often do we put up an image of ourselves as we are desperately trying to figure out who we are. Often times it is only through life circumstance that anyone ever gets a glimpse of who they might be. But what if, just for a change, rather than putting up an image we let others see what is behind the imagination and what this imagination desires.

Lead (Jan. 16)

There are numerous books on the market today aimed at leadership and how one can become a better leader. Most of these books will make the claim that there are certain people that are just born with an inate ability to lead, or the aparent ability to lead. Many of the examples we have from the present age are examples that seem to crumble over time and while they lead for a while there is nothing lasting but a mention of their name in a book on a shelf. When you look back at leaders of the past there is a very interesting phenomenon. Leaders from the past who seem to have been able to do something greater than one individual did not lead to impress but lead to serve. It was not about themselves but about the greater good.

Help (Jan. 15)

There are moments that happen in the world when the world just seems to break. There are moments when you just stop and think the world is changing right now and how I respond in this moment may make a difference. The question is why do many wait for these moments? Why is the world a place where we wait for something to break and then throw a bandaid on it? The funnier thing is that we often look at particular causes in the world and the people pushing for change and think that they are crazy for wanting to do something good now. I think the reality is that in general people do not know the best way to help. We attempt to do things that we think are good an in the long run these actions end up hurting. Maybe we should first take the time to understand what helping really is.

Toys (Jan. 14)

They say that the older you get the bigger and/or more expensive the toys get. So what exactly is the fascination humans have with toys? As a child they are a tool by which we help to encourage the imagination. But what is the point of toys as one gets older and inevitably settles into life? Once settled it no longer seems to be a matter of encouraging the imagination as much as it is a tool by which one can have an alternate out put for the imagination beyond whatever area of work one has settled into. In some cases I dare say it is the only output for imagination that some have. The bottom line is that toys are still toys and in some sense toys, whatever they might be allows one to hold on to some semblance of childlike excitement. This is not an issue as long as the adult has a maturity beyond that of a three year old who is for the first time fully aware of what birthdays and Christmas means for their toy collection.

Writing (Jan. 13)

What is the point of writing something down on paper or even now on some computer document is no one is ever going to read it? Perhaps it is more than what it seems as writing can be an exercise of the mind. See it is one thing to think of something and a completely different thing to put it down on paper. With this being the case I propose that there are two kinds of people in the world. First there are the people that actually use their minds and second there are the people that substitute their emotions as use of their mind. I am not saying that emotions do not stem from the mind but simply that there is something ever so slightly less intellectual about writing about emotions which are inevitable self centered. Where if one uses their mind to think about the issues at hand there is something greater than the self involved. A diary or journal might be a good thing for some but seeking truth is much better.

Odd Again (Jan. 12)

In thinking about odd again it came about in thought that we often refer to certain kinds of people that are odd. On the one hand it is very clear that this is a matter of perspective and circumstance. One culture would view certain aspects of other cultures as odd. Also those who travel to other parts of the world will be considered odd simply from the fact that they do not fit in within the given culture that is present around them. But going back to the concept of odd numbers making up half of all numbers, could it be possible that the world is made up of more people that are odd than we would think? Certainly we will make allowences for the cultural issue, yet it seems that people in general are odd creatures, if not always, for at least brief moments in life. Perhaps odd is normal.

Odd (Jan. 11)

When something seems out of the ordinary we might call it odd, but what is odd? The first memory you might have of odd comes from basic math where you learned about odd numbers. Simply put odd numbers are odd because they are not divisible by two evenly. The odd thing about calling odd numbers odd is that half of all number are odd. In this instance the term odd refers to more than something that just seems out of place but something that actually makes up half of its kind. So why is it that we call something odd when it seems out of place. Could it possibly be that there is more about the world that we do not understand and thus call something odd simply because we have not yet learned about that half of the world?

Expectations (Jan.10)

You may not be a prophet but the reality is that you live with certain expectations of the way things are supposed to turn out. Perhaps it is something as simple as which team you think will win the game or perhaps it is as serious as how you and your significant other will handle your finances. Either way you step into everyday with certain expectations. There are times in life when these expectations need to be made known and yet you might not even know that you need to. The problem there is that the lack of communication of your expectations becomes incredibly unfair to those around you who you are measuring up to those expectations. If the expectations are never communicated how can one even know how to live up to them?

Happy (Jan. 9)

There are just some things in life that cannot help but bring a smile to your face and warmth to your heart. There are times when even the quietest, most introverted person will just want to shout out from the highest hill just to let you know how happy they are. Sure eveyone goes through life wanting to be happy but the reality might be that happy is more of a choice than anyone would care to admit to. One can do things that make them feel happy in the moment and yet later lead to depression. So, what would it take for someone to be happy most of the time? Perhaps it is as simple as finding the small things in life that make you happy. Maybe it is taking a step back and realizing that all the junk in life is not as bad as it might seem when those small things are so much greater. Maybe it is a simple choice of putting youself in a position where you are more likely to find the small things that make you happy and the small things that do not lead to anything but happiness.

Retreat (Jan. 8)

There is a time in life when jumping in the battle is the right decision to make, and this is often the decision that people make everyday of their lives. Then there is a time to just sit back and get away from it all. It is really the idea that it is okay to retreat and yet the word retreat conjures up images of an army defeated turning back to what is left of home with their heads looking at the ground. In reality what the world does after work to just relax and the times when we go on vacation are just the same at taking a retreat but for the first time in history we are starting to let even these times become another battle. The question then is when in all of time is one going to give their body the rest that it needs. I am not talking about sleeping at night which is even done in the midst of the battle but a rest that is reminicent of the Hebrew year of Jubilee. Sometimes you do need to just get away and away from everything.

Location (Jan. 7)

Where are you? Are you sure that this is really you. It is so hard to know exactly who you are in such a way that location can be determined. Think for a second if someone asks you who you are. What would you tell them? Now think about who you really are, more than some biological breathing machine. What genuinely makes up who you actually are and not what you are. If the question is simply what are you then you can assing yourself a number and call yourself a human than then give the specific location of where that number human currently exists. But who you are and the location of the who is something so much greater because who you are has to do with something that is not physical and therefore cannot be given a location. Think about that next time you are standing somewhere you do not want to be.

Face (Jan. 6)

I know there is a lot of material out there about how facial expressions convey so much information. You might even be able to have an entire conversation by just makeing different faces. The more interesting phenomenon is that it seems most people seem to where signs on their forehead proclaiming a particular message much like the scene in the movie Hitch where Hitch first meets Sarah. Honestly it is a little crazy to think that you could literally advertise your thoughts and intentions right out there on your forehead but it is certainly there. The sad thing is that there are too many signs out there saying exactly what Hitch noted in the movie. What is your sign saying?

Value (Jan. 5)

What is value? On what sort of things do you place value? Why do you value the things that you do value? In reality we merely value things, but things are just that, merely things. But what is value intrinsically and what value do we place on that intrinsic nature? In an attempt to define value there is a serious lack of definition outside of other words that might suffice as cognates which add no real meaning to the word value. The little bit that can be known about value is that it is completely circumstantial and completely subjective to the individual. What one might find more interesting is the way individuals value things drives their actions to an extreme measure, so much so that the world is left in a place where courts must determine value in all kinds of different circumstances. How can they do that without some universal principal that is outside of circumstance and subjectivity? Now, how much do you value that which you once held so close?

Indecisiveness (Jan. 4)

When one have some sort of moral compass and an intense desire that all things should be just, it is very hard to make any decisions at all. See the reality is that any decision, right down to which pair of socks should I wear today, seems to have some sort of impact on a greater level than just the individual. Then you begin thinking about others and how the decision will affect them. Then you become lost in this perilous vortex of thought and responsibility. Sure there are times and places when a decision has to be made but it might not be as easy as it seems. Indecision is not something to get frustrated over, it is something that means you are actually paying attention to the desire for justice and the moral compass. Now if you could only make the decision.

Nothing (Jan. 3)

It is entirely impossible to ever have nothing. You can hold out your hand and say there is nothing in your hand but the reality is that there are several bones in your hand that actually make up your hand. Now you might say that the bones and flesh and other things do not count becuase they are what make up the hand. So, lets then take a look at what sits atop of your hand when you hold it out and say that there is nothing there. Well, there is air there that is useful for a great number of things, the least of which may even keep you alive in a short matter of time. Still you think that is must be possible to have nothing if you were able to put your hand in a vaccum where there is no air. Minus that strange impossibility that you could even survive such an instance, there still remains one thing in your hand. See everyone has something that I like to call space and too often it is overlooked. Think how much more you would even value those old shoes of yours if you were to value the space that you could hold in your hands.

Patience (Jan. 2)

I have heard it said that patience is a virtue. It is way more than that. Too often, especially in the world today we like to rush and get or do things now. What has that led to? In my honest opinion it is nothing but trouble. I dare say that the entire fall in the world's economy in some part deals with exactly the lack of patience in individuals. I understand that the desire to succeed is important and I am not saying that this is a bad desire to have, I am simply saying that lasting success is built more out of patience than it is out of getting what you want right now. This is true in all areas of life and the one who learns patience is the one who will be filled with more happy days than anyone else around them. They will appreciate the simple things more and take better care of the things they are blessed with.

New (Jan. 1)

Every year we seem to celebrate the coming of the new year. Semantically it is really nothing but a new number by which we arbitrarily mark out history through time and isn't really anything new at all. It is just like every other day for that matter when the new year comes. So why are humans so excited for the new year? If it is really any other day, why are humans not this excited for everyday of the year? The word new seems to be one of those things that really catches the attention and creates desire becuase it surly means that things will be better than they used to be. In reality it seems to me that there is really only one thing that is truly new, that being the creation of a new person. A new year is really any other year. A new toy is really any other toy. A new job could be any job. But a new person is something tuly unique and never before seen. So, when you think of new, think of you and who you were created to be.